Ferry union contract: Up, or another year ?

Wahkiakum County commissioners hope to get to the bottom of a debate over dates: Does the contract with the ferry crew's union expire March 31, 2010, or March 31, 2011?

Commissioner Blair Brady reported Tuesday that the union negotiator makes the case that the contract expires March 31, 2011. The contract was signed March 31, 2008, and it contains a table showing wage adjustments for a three-year period.

The negotiator, Brady said, claims that any references to March 31, 2010, are incorrect and stem from use of a new version of computer software to write the contract.

"They convinced me there is another year on the contract," Brady said.

Wait a minute, Commissioner Lisa Marsyla said Tuesday. She believes the agreement was a two-year contract that expires this month.

She said she bases that belief on statements in the commission minutes from 2008. She also interviewed retired Commissioner George Trott, who negotiated the contract, and who said it was a two-year contract.

Marsyla and Brady agreed to put their materials together and talk again with the union about the date.

The importance, Marsyla said, is that if the contract were to go another year, it would give the ferry crew a 3 percent raise.

"No one else is getting a raise," she said. "Not the elected officials, not the non-union employees, and not the union employees."

In other business Tuesday:

--Commissioners approved a proposed policy governing the sale of dredge spoil sand from a Puget Island pit which the county jointly operates with Diking District No. 1. The policy will be sent to the diking district board of commissioners for their approval.

The policy limits sale of sand to individuals at 1,000 cubic yards per year. Other provisions prohibit stockpiling so that a group of individuals could hold sand that a commercial business would sell.

The policy also provides that 25,000 cubic yards be kept in reserve, 15,000 for the diking district for possible flood emergencies, and 10,000 for county needs.

George Exum, whose residence is across Ostervold Road from the sand pit, urged officials to make sure a sufficient amount of sand be left in the pit to prevent erosion of the dike and roadway.

The agreement has provisions for those reserves, said Public Works Director Pete Ringen, including the provision for the 25,000 reserve as well as another buffer area.